


Transmutations & Restoration

by SakiMcGee



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: First major story on AO3 so I don't even really know what to type hahaaaa, Gen, Literally all the characters are in this okay I don't feel like entering them all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24634312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakiMcGee/pseuds/SakiMcGee
Summary: “Is that all you’re here for? A visit? I thought you came to investigate that girl for the military.”“Girl? What do you mean?” Al asked before his brother had the chance, leaning into the conversation.“Few days ago, in the middle of the night, there was this huge booming sound and the whole town shook. Most of us thought it was an earthquake, but a few people out near the woods went out to investigate.” His eyes grew wide as he continued, “Right there past the treeline, there was this huge crater. Like something big had come down from the sky and slammed into the Earth. And in the middle of it…” he paused, leaning ever closer to whisper, “…a girl.”----------After a chance encounter, Ed and Al find themselves in the company of a strange new friend. Banding together to search for salvation and for missing friends, the brothers will find that their world will not be the only one shaken by this meeting.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! This might be a bit unorthodox but I’d like to take a moment and give this story a bit of a foreword, to try and help anyone kind enough to read it to sort of understand the circumstances of its genesis. 
> 
> My first foray into fanfic, and FMA fanfic specifically, began when I was very young. I wrote most of my stories between the ages of 13 and 16, and suffice to say they were decidedly amateur. Mostly, they consisted of a very blatant self-insert popping into the Elrics’ world and being cool and magical and essentially just existing as an avatar of my own self-indulgent shippy desires. But hey, we’ve all kind of been there haven’t we? 
> 
> Anyway, to cut a long story short, the self-insert character I identified with back in those days gradually grew apart from me. It took quite a long time, and a lot of re-working, but the character and the story that evolved from those beginnings really has nothing in common with her origins save for her physical appearance. 
> 
> I’ve had a lot of time to kill these last few months, and I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you precisely why. During that time, I rewatched FMA:B and really started to remember how little 13-year-old me felt when 2003 was my comfort show and when I spent days upon days writing those self-insert stories and reveling in them. And it was during this time that a thought entered my little gremlin brain:  
> What if I rebooted my old fanfic with my characters as they are now in place of the old self-insert bullshit? 
> 
> So uh, this is that.
> 
> Enjoy. 😊

The still silence of the night was broken by frantic footsteps. Two silhouettes darted through the wood as fast as their muscles would allow—stumbling over themselves, and each other, and the brush that whipped against their skin.

Blood pumped hard and fast in the girl’s ears but the thundering of her pulse was not yet loud enough to block out the sounds that echoed from a few yards behind her; not enough either to cover the sounds that came from within her own memories _(the gunshots and the screaming, they’ve shot Dasha and there’s nothing I can do but run nothing nothing-)_

"Sache!" The raspy voice of her partner tore her suddenly from her panicked spiral. His hand was firm around her wrist and pulling her sharply into the foliage before she could protest. The ground beneath their feet sloped sharply downward here, and the pair found themselves tumbling over one another and into a ditch full of leaf-litter.

Sache’s head popped above the leaves with a ragged gasp. Her gaze flicked about frantically, until she identified a nearby crunching to be Zaquroh surfacing from the foliage as well.

"Zaqi...we have to...go..." Sache breathed in a voice so quiet she was not sure if her partner heard her at all. He leveled a tired glance in her direction, and she decided it did not matter either way. There was nowhere to go—not from here. Once again, they were the only ones alive. Finding themselves alone and hunted and hopeless as always. Sache believed there were only so many times that someone could evade death, and it seemed their time was finally up.

...unless.

The girl scrambled closer to Zaquroh, struggling to find any footing in the seemingly bottomless trench of underbrush. Her eyes were already glowing faintly as she approached, matching the soft aqua light emanating from her palms.

"Sache, stop it," Zaquroh hissed. Sache hesitated and offered him a puzzled look. "Whatever you’re doing," he specified, "stop it. You’re tired, you’re not going to accomplish anything other than hurting yourself."

The light in Sache’s eyes dimmed briefly and she prepared a rebuttal. The distant crack of a gun killed the words on her lips however, and she steeled herself to resist glancing over her shoulder. There was no point—she knew exactly what was coming.

"We have...no choice," she hissed, voice wavering. "I can still get us out of here. Dasha taught me how...she showed me how..."

"No," Zaquroh snapped, voice as rock-steady as the hands he placed on her shoulders. "Listen to me. You don’t have any energy left-"

"Just trust me!" Sache batted his hands away as the cry left her in a desperate rush. "For once—Zaqi for _once_ , please just trust me to do something useful! For once in your life just shut up and let me try!"

Zaquroh hesitated, taken aback by the uncharacteristic force behind the girl’s words. His gaze flicked rapidly between Sache and the shadowy horizon over her shoulder. It was not a decision he was prepared to make...but the desperation written across Sache’s face and the fact that the light in her eyes was igniting again told him it had never been his in the first place.

He wanted to say something reassuring or heartfelt—'please be careful, let me find another way, _Sache I’m scared'_ —but the only words that manifested were, "Don’t mess it up."

Sache managed to breathe out a laugh. As a mob of shadowy figures crested the ridge and pushed through the breaks in the trees, she firmly grasped Zaquroh’s hands and focused as hard as she ever had...

...and the two vanished in a burst of brilliant blue light.


	2. Stalled

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really quickly I'd like to point out a couple helpful things! First of all, pronunciation for my character's names are Sah-chay and Zah-koo-row.
> 
> Secondly, the canon of this fic is going to do a little bit of jumping around between 2003 and mangahood and stuff I just made up. There are a few things about the world and how things work that I was never able to find detailed explanations of, and for a while I drove myself crazy researching and reading analyses by others, until I decided...hey isn't making shit up what fanfic is for anyway? So here we are lol.  
> (Also I'm really sorry if these first few chapters sound stilted, it's been such a long time since I've written this much and I'm sure my prose is rusty augh)
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

By this point, Edward Elric was sure he could draw constellations out of the paths he'd taken across the East. The stiffness of his back and the numbness of his behind were an ever-present reminder of just how long he and Alphonse had been sedentary on train seats in the last few weeks.

The chaos in Liore had been stressful for a number of reasons, but it had at least been a nice change of pace from the stillness that the brothers had begun to grow accustomed to.

So when they were informed by an attendant that their train would need to take a brief detour for repairs after hitting an unfortunate stray sheep on the tracks (Ed made a mental note not to look at the front of the engine when he disembarked), Al suggested taking the time to explore their surroundings and stretch.

"It's not that I mind the chance to find more information," Ed grumbled as he hefted his suitcase over his shoulder and descended the stairs from the train platform, "but I get so antsy when we're stuck somewhere. And I don't exactly feel like forking out more money for a hotel, especially if all the towns around here are as 'welcoming' as Youswell."

Alphonse couldn't help but laugh a bit, earning a disdainful glance from his older brother as the two wandered aimlessly through the streets. The town was called Kendia, at least according to the charming wooden welcome sign nearby. It was not a place Ed had ever heard of before. But then, the countryside was dotted with nothing-little-towns like this. He was sure his own hometown of Resembool would be unknown to just as many.

Kendia seemed to lack any particularly defining features, though it couldn't be denied that the village had an easygoing charm. The brothers wandered the brick streets and cast cursory glances at the few shops they passed. Townspeople lingered outside, chatting easily, some even sparing a wave or a smile to the newcomers if they made eye contact. As much as Ed hated to sit around and waste time, he relished in the calming atmosphere of this place. And perhaps the friendliness of the locals would work in his favor if any of them had rumors of the Philosopher's Stone or advances in medical alchemy to share.

It didn't take long to find the town's inn: a cottage with no more than five guest rooms to speak of. Edward headed the check-in process, only narrowly avoiding blowing a gasket when the old man behind the counter looked to Alphonse and asked why his small child was paying for their room.

"I'll need to see some kind of identification then," the man retorted rather incredulously when Edward insisted he was the older of the two. The young alchemist couldn't deny the small surge of smug satisfaction he felt when pulling his state pocketwatch free from his belt and slamming it down on the polished wood countertop.

A beat of silence passed as the employee eyed the glinting silver before him, the gears in his head seemingly beginning to turn. "But you’re so young…" Edward smirked as he watched realization settle in the man’s eyes. "Oh, you’re that—damn, what was it again—Metal or whatever? Edward Elric? You just uncovered that sham priest in Liore!"

Ed sucked his teeth sharply. "Yeah, that's me. Now can we get the damn room or not?"

The employee cocked one eyebrow as he watched Edward slide his pocketwatch off the counter and back into his pocket. "Is that all you're here for? A visit? I thought you came to investigate that girl for the military."

That caught Ed's attention. "Girl? What do you mean?" Al asked before his brother had the chance, leaning into the conversation.

"I thought for sure they'd called the military by now, but the whole thing's been a little hush-hush," the man mused, leaning in as well to rest his elbows on the countertop. "Few days ago, in the middle of the night, there was this huge booming sound and the whole town shook. Most of us thought it was an earthquake, but a few people out near the woods went out to investigate." His eyes grew wide as he continued, "Right there past the treeline, there was this huge crater. Like something big had come down from the sky and slammed into the Earth. And in the middle of it..." he paused, leaning ever closer to whisper, "...a girl."

Edward's brows furrowed in sudden disappointment. "Bullshit."

The man straightened up again to wave his hands animatedly. "It's true! They took her off to the clinic and she's been there ever since. The doctors are saying she hasn't woken up yet, and they've apparently been talking about sending her off to a big city hospital where they have more resources—which is why I assumed you two had come."

Ed glanced back at his brother, his lips pursed doubtfully. "We're stuck here for at least another day until another train comes, brother," Al reasoned, "we might as well see if there's anything we can do."

It took a few moments of internal debate, but Ed finally relented as he fished a handful of bills from his coat pocket. "Fine. We'll take the room, and you can add in directions to this clinic while you're at it."

* * *

Sache awoke as if from a dream, still feeling the sensation of her body floating on air. She cast a dazed glance around the room before even being consciously aware of it—off-white walls and bland fabrics, a single portrait of a bouquet that could have been painted by any mediocre artist. She had no idea where she was, but she knew the most important thing:

It wasn't where she last remembered being.

The girl sat up carefully, wincing at the resistance of every muscle she moved. A sharp discomfort in her arm alerted her to the presence of an IV taped down against her skin, and that realization sent ice water through her veins.

A hospital. She was in a hospital. And there definitely weren't rooms this nice in Kondas. The teleportation had to have worked, but where had it taken her? How long had she been here?

Where was Zaquroh?

Muffled conversation drew Sache's panicked gaze to the door of her room. She began to pick words out more clearly as they approached:

"...heard that a state alchemist has come to look into it?"

"Really? I'm surprised they didn't send some of the higher-ups. State alchemists are only Majors, aren't they?"

"That’s where they start, but they can go higher. That Colonel in East City is a state alchemist, so...either way, I guess the military is taking an interest in her after all."

Sache's heart thudded loudly in her chest. She barely understood what the people walking in the hallway were talking about, but talk of the military was enough to spark the fear of God in her.

That had to be it, then. She had ended up somewhere far from the intended destination. Somewhere where the military had been alerted to her presence. And if that was the case, then surely Zaquroh had been...had been...

The girl quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle the anguished cry that threatened to spill out. There was still a chance, she rationalized desperately, and the staff here believing her to still be unconscious was a benefit she could capitalize upon. With all the strength she could muster, Sache swallowed down her tears and set to freeing herself from the handful of tubes sunken into her skin. She absentmindedly noticed that the room lacked the monitors and equipment she was accustomed to seeing in hospitals, but this only solidified the theory that she was far from home. Few countries had the same resources as Aossin after all, she though bitterly.

Sache pulled the last needle from her arm and quickly wiped away the blood that beaded to the surface. A cursory glance around revealed none of her clothes or personal belongings, so she begrudgingly accepted the thin paper gown around her body as the only cover she would have for the time being.

Luckily the hospital staff hadn't appeared to mark her as high-security; a simple sliding glass window against the far wall seemed an easy escape. Sache steeled her resolve as she slipped from under the stiff hospital blanket and swept her legs over the side of the bed. All she would need to do would be to open the glass and leap out—even if she were several stories up, a simple burst of energy would be enough to-

The thought went unfinished as the girl yelped and stumbled roughly to the ground. Sache's instincts went into a frenzy. She thrashed against the cold tile floor, unable to identify how or why she had fallen immediately upon standing. Her small bruised fists swatted aimlessly at the air in a means to fend off any unseen attacker, but after a few moments passed with her strikes finding no purchase, she allowed herself to breathe and cracked open her eyes.

Sache sat up on her elbows and caught her breath. There was no other person in the room to trip or attack her, and a glance downward revealed no cords or blankets wrapped around her ankles...

...her ankles.

Time slowed to a halt as Sache processed it. Where two once healthy and whole legs had been all her life, there now appeared a bandaged mess. One leg ended in a mass of bloody gauze, wrapped tightly around a foot that Sache only just realized she could not move or discern any feeling in. But this sight was a welcome one compared to the end of her left leg, where she found...nothing. A tightly-bound stump where her ankle ended, and no foot below it. Nothing.

Sache no longer had the strength to suppress a hysterical scream.


	3. Ground Zero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait on this one, I caved and bought Sad Zombie Game 2 and I've been distracted by that;;
> 
> I went back and forth on a lot of the action in this chapter, but it'll never be perfect. I really should have written this story in first person, because that's usually where my strength is. But, gotta just suck it up and put it out into the world as it is. Enjoy!

"So, any thoughts?"

Edward didn't turn to directly acknowledge his brother, instead offering a thoughtful hum as his reply. His golden gaze remained on the ground before him, calculating, reaching out a gloved hand to gently dust at the disturbed earth.

The supposed crash site of the 'girl from the sky' didn't seem to be the crater the desk clerk at the inn had described it to be. The ground was certainly torn up, mounds of dirt and underbrush forcibly ripped and pushed outward from a central point, but the indent wasn't very deep at all. Rather than an object (person?) plummeting down from above and crash landing, it seemed instead as if a powerful wind had materialized in the area. Ed had never seen a tornado with his own eyes, but he knew enough about their makeup to infer that this may be what the ground zero of one would look like.

The alchemist stood and gently dusted his hands against his coat. "It's definitely odd," Edward sighed, "but there's not any evidence here to support the rumor that she came from the sky." _Obviously_ , he added silently. Ed glanced over toward his brother, the hulking armor bent down near the treeline for closer examination. "You see anything interesting over there, Al?"

Alphonse's headpiece turned toward Edward as best it could. "I think so, actually. Come look." His attention shifted back to the tree trunk before him as Ed made his way closer. "The trees and most of the plants nearby aren't damaged that badly. And they're clean, too. Isn't that a little weird?"

It took Edward a few moments to catch the implication, but his golden eyes lit up like the sunrise when it finally clicked. "When we got to the clinic this morning and asked about the girl, they told us she had severe injuries to her legs and feet."

Alphonse clanked a bit when he nodded. "One foot was almost entirely missing, and they had to amputate the bit that remained. That's a really serious injury, one that would have left a lot more blood behind." The younger Elric reached out to brace himself against the rough tree bark and stood upright. "But other than the little bit dried up in the dirt over there, there's no other blood splatter. None on the grass, or the trees? That doesn't seem right."

Edward's jaw ticked. He willed the image of such an injury from his mind's eye. He'd seen enough of bloody stumps where human limbs had once been. "…it's been a few days since she was found, rain could have washed it away," he ventured slowly, though even he sounded unconvinced by the notion.

"Or," Alphonse pressed, looking to Edward as their thoughts seemed to sync up, "something isn't adding up here."

"You're right, Al," the older brother murmured, turning to scan the area with renewed interest. "This entire scene doesn’t make any sense. Whatever happened here was big enough to disfigure that girl and make enough noise to alert the townspeople, but not enough to leave a bigger impact?" Ed ran a finger against his lip, deep in thought. "More than that, what even are the possibilities of what happened here? Was she attacked? Was it something she caused, herself? Hell, it looks like she practically…appeared out of thin fucking air."

Alphonse made a displeased noise at Ed's colorful language, earning merely a handwave of apology. Edward Elric was a proud sort, and mysteries with no clear solution or evidence frustrated him like nothing else. He was nearly always capable of seeing the truth; of digging up answers others were blind to. So what was different here? What the _hell_ happened?

"Maybe we should go back and wait for her to wake up. She might be able to tell us something herself." Al's prompt cleared the clouds from Ed's stormy mind and he nodded quickly. Nearly two hours had passed since the brothers first arrived at the clinic and were informed of the mystery girl's condition. She had still been unconscious when they saw her, just as she apparently had been since appearing almost a week prior. And while her conscious state had no immediate signs of changing, Edward wanted to know the instant she was awake and alert.

He turned away from the trees and called out to a man and woman in white watching from afar. The two nurses had volunteered to escort Ed and Al there from the clinic. "Thanks for the help, but I think we've seen enough. We can head back and just wait for the girl to wake up."

The male nurse smiled politely as he and his partner turned to leave. "It might be a bit boring, but if you need something to pass the time, we wouldn't mind having a couple of extra hands to help with other patients," he chuckled. Ed snorted quietly—doubtful his bedside manner would be a welcome addition to the operation of the clinic—and fell into step behind the two.

* * *

The walk back to the clinic spanned nearly a mile. Since the group had set out on foot, it was a good half hour before Ed spotted the building in the distance. A huff of relief passed his lips. He'd taken off his coat some time ago and slung it over his shoulder to earn respite from the heat of the day. Noticing his brother's struggle, Alphonse spoke up. "Excuse me, but would it be alright if we had something to drink when we get back? Maybe lunch, too?"

One of the nurses smiled easily. "Of course! Ms. Vivian from the café in town helps us part-time making meals for our long-term patients, I'm sure she wouldn't mind adding a few extra servings."

Alphonse waved his hands quickly, stammering something about having intended to pay for the meal, but his voice faded into the background for Edward. His awareness had been drawn to the distance, some small stimulus locking his mind in place before he even consciously realized what it was. The glint of sunlight off one of the clinic's second floor windows, shifting subtly as the glass was moved aside; the _frush_ of a curtain being pushed away.

Hands appearing on the sill, followed ever so slowly by a head of golden-blonde hair. Then a knee against the frame.

An entire body being lurched forward and out.

Edward's feet moved before his mind did. He shoved past the nurses. One processed the scene before them and began to cry out. The clinic was still a good 50 feet away—as was the frantic girl now plunging toward the ground.

Ed's legs pumped hard, his gaze flickering over the ground, taking in all available materials and their abundancy.

His inner monologue rambled through formulas and equations; visualized the circle that would be necessary to incorporate all of it.

The girl let out a raw, instinctive shriek.

Ed clapped.

A brilliant blue light erupted from the ground as Edward lurched forward to slam his hands against it. The energy surged outward, cracks and crevasses ripping through the dirt in their wake. The earth suddenly shot upward, raw material clumping together as it rose to culminate in the distinct shape of a hand. The soil fingers materialized not a second before the falling girl landed hard against their surface. She yelped sharply, her body bouncing once and then tumbling down the slope of the transmuted mass into an unmoving heap on the ground.

It took a few moments for the spell of shock to break over the bystanders. All at once they rushed forward—the nurses past Ed to the fallen girl's side and Alphonse skidding to a stop just short of them. "Brother," he gasped, and though he apparently could not think of just what he wanted to say beyond it, the sentiment was apparent nonetheless.

"I'll get a doctor!" the male nurse yelled, turning and sprinting inside. His partner remained behind to watch over the fallen patient and check for further injuries.

Ed and Al exchanged a hesitant glance before allowing themselves to venture closer. "Is…is she alright? Can we help?" Alphonse spoke up cautiously.

The nurse glanced up at him and parted her lips to respond, but a groan from the girl in her arms quickly drew her focus back. The injured girl whimpered a bit as her eyes slid open, confused aqua gaze drifting dazedly around in a search for answers. There was a brief hesitation when she took in the suit of armor towering over her.

And then her face was alive with fear.

The girl choked out a scream, furiously batting the nurse away from her. She scrambled backwards a short distance before the wounds on her feet halted her. Edward and Alphonse simultaneously lurched forward to grab her, to help in some way they hadn't fully conceived yet, but the movement changed something in the girl before them. In an instant her expression shifted from pained confusion to something entirely different—reminiscent of a cornered animal going on the attack. She looked desperate; unyielding.

The girl sat up and thrust a hand toward the brothers. Her hoarse voice raised just enough to let out a cry of, " _Ketsz_!"

The boys stopped in their tracks, startled. Unsure.

But nothing happened.

After a few moments of silence, the girl paled and shakily lowered her hand. "H…huh?" she breathed while turning her palm up to her face to stare at it in disbelief. "Why is…where is… _KETSZ_!" she screamed again, thrusting both hands forward this time. But again, whatever action she intended never came.

"Miss, please don't move so much. We need to get you back inside," the nurse's voice was gentle yet firm as she reached out to her patient. But her hands were slapped away again, the girl trying valiantly to wriggle away.

"No! I'm not going back! You will not take me back!" Some realization seemed to hit her then, and tears welled up in her eyes as she looked around frantically. "Where is my Zaqi? _Zaqi!?_ "

"Zaqi?" Ed repeated under his breath. The entire situation was becoming more than he could process, and just as he took another step forward to intervene, the male nurse returned with a mob of medical staff on his heels. They quickly surrounded the girl, and their proximity sent her into a full-blown fit of hysteria. She screamed and flailed, hitting and even biting at the doctors who attempted to touch her. Edward winced a bit when one of the nurses grabbed her from behind and she let out a particularly feral shriek in response.

Seemingly all at once then, the commotion came to an end. One of the doctors produced a syringe from behind his back and expertly slipped the needle into the girl's arm. She looked on in abject horror and tried to break free, but her movements became increasingly sluggish. Soon her entire body slumped listlessly back against the nurse holding her.

It was Alphonse who broke the silence first. "Wh-what did that do to her? Is she alright?"

The doctor with the needle sighed and stood up straight. "It was a simple tranquilizer. Something to calm her long enough for us to get her back inside and make sure she didn't reopen her wounds." His gaze trailed up to the open window while a frown pulled at his lips. "…and maybe put a lock on the window."

Edward finally closed the distance between himself and the group. He offered a hand to one of the nurses crouched in the dirt. "Why the hell did she jump in the first place? How long has she been awake?"

"I have no idea. It must not have been long—she was still unconscious when I did my rounds an hour ago." The doctor watched on thoughtfully as a stretcher was fetched from the clinic. "As for why she jumped…panic, perhaps? Waking up in a strange place, disoriented and possibly delusional? It's not uncommon, but normally the height would be enough to dissuade someone from attempting it."

The medical staff banded together to slide the girl carefully onto the stretcher. Ed looked on, his expression troubled. "No…that's not it," he muttered. "I watched her jump. She looked like she knew exactly what she was doing."

With the girl finally secured atop it, the stretcher was heaved off the ground. The nurses marched toward the clinic in lockstep, careful not to jostle their cargo unnecessarily. Alphonse moved to follow them, hesitating when he noticed that Ed remained motionless and lost in thought.

"She looked prepared," he continued firmly. "For some reason, she didn't see any danger in it. It was only when she started to fall that she looked alarmed.

"The question is…why?"


	4. Does Anybody Have A Map?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally done! I can't apologize enough for how long it's been since I updated, but...well I'm sure you all know just how shitty this year has been for being productive and for mental health in general :)))
> 
> But I finally got myself focused again, and to make up for the delay, this chapter is at LEAST twice as long as any of the others. Hooray!
> 
> Enjoy!

Alphonse Elric was quite used to watching others sleep. He'd spent nearly four years finding new ways to waste time in the night: walking dark empty streets, reading more books than he really cared to, picking up stray cats and keeping them as long as he could manage before Ed found out.

And very often he waged a silent vigil at the foot of his older brother's bed, listening to him whimper through his nightmares.

Not long after the brothers had first committed their sin, when they were given refuge at the Rockbell household, Alphonse had found an insomniac companion in Winry. The young girl slept fitfully those first months, consumed with worry for her friends. Her soft footfalls would approach the boys' room several times throughout the night, finding Alphonse alone in consciousness. Most nights, the pair would talk about whatever came to mind until Winry grew sleepy enough to return to her bed. Other times they would simply settle into a comfortable, albeit noticeably gloomy silence.

So as Al found himself posted beside the hospital bed of the unconscious mystery girl, watching nervously while she twitched and groaned, he felt not nearly as out of place as he should have.

Alphonse could just barely register his brother's voice out in the hall, discussing options for the girl in question with the medical staff. She hadn't woken since her fall (jump, really) from the window, but the doctor had examined her thoroughly and assured the boys that she hadn't sustained any major injuries. Still, Alphonse fretted, why—

Almost to spite his thoughts, the girl stirred more intensely. Her eyes fluttered open and searched the room drowsily. Alphonse held his breath…or rather, had the inclination to do so despite his lack of physical lungs.

It didn't take long for the girl's aqua gaze to find him. She hesitated, processing.

In the next instant, the girl jolted upright as if stung, a choked yelp wrenching itself from her throat. The frame of the bed lurched with her; she took notice then of the leather straps securing her wrists firmly against the metal bedframe. A look of cold terror shadowed her features. She slowly turned her eyes back to Alphonse.

"Oh!" the boy yelped, clanking as he leapt to his feet in surprise. "You're awake! D-don't worry, the restraints are just to make sure you don't try to hurt yourself again. Doctor's idea."

The girl's breath was now leaving her in short huffs, eyes trembling as she struggled to focus through what was clearly a budding panic attack. "H…hurt…my…?" she wheezed in confusion.

Alphonse made a move toward the bed, but a sharp jolt from the girl halted him in his tracks. He fought to keep his voice soft and even despite the tremble in his hands. "Do you not remember? Earlier, the first time you woke up, you tried to jump out of the window. If my brother hadn't caught you, you could have been seriously hurt-"

"Well I wasn't supposed to fall!" The girl's fear and frustration manifested in one hysterical scream. The action seemed to rob her of any remaining restraint, as it was followed by a series of violent sobs.

Al remained poised beside her bed, arms still raised in a futile gesture of comfort. "What…was supposed to happen, then?" he asked under his breath.

He watched the girl cry helplessly—neither he nor Ed had ever particularly known what to do with themselves in the presence of distraught girls. As a child, Winry had cried loudly and often. She had always worn her heart on her sleeve, and even if it resulted in angry outbursts more often than the boys liked, it had still been somewhat comforting to know exactly how she was feeling. That she trusted them enough to be so transparent.

The girl shaking and weeping before Alphonse now was an entirely different beast. Her feelings were bared raw and ugly before him not in a gesture of trust, but because she had no other options. Tears glistening on her cheeks and wrists still tugging futilely at the leather straps binding her to the bedframe, she looked for all the world like a trapped animal.

And it broke Al's heart.

"You're the one they sent for me…aren't you?"

Alphonse was so lost in his own internal monologue that he had nearly missed the girl's hoarse question. She didn't raise her head to look at him again, but continued to choke out her words: "From the military? I heard…heard the nurses talking earlier. That they'd called someone. You're here to take us back, right?" Her questions were briefly punctuated by shudders and soft gasps, but she seemed to be at least partially calming. "Well…we're not going back. No matter what. So you can go right back home and tell her that it's too late. We're going to tell everyone exactly what she's doing, and it-…"

At first, Al mistook the girl's sudden choking halt to be another debilitating sob. But all at once, her head whipped up to reveal a look of such desperation and fear that he was nearly knocked backwards by the weight of it.

"Wait…w-wait wait, where is he? Do you already have him? Oh god…oh god please tell me you didn't…" The girl lurched forward, biting her lip harshly in place of the hand she was unable to clamp over it. "I-if you…oh god, don't hurt him. Please. Zaquroh didn't do anything wrong, I'm the defector! S-so you can take me if you have to, but he-"

Alphonse couldn't stand it anymore. The agony, the terror etched into every line of the girl's face, combined with the violent sobs that tore from her chest—it was overwhelming, maddening.

He lurched forward almost entirely on instinct, large gloved hands clasping around the much smaller and trapped palm of the girl before him. "My…my name is Alphonse Elric!"

A heavy silence settled over the room; even the girl's sniffles and hiccups seemed to die in her throat as she fixed a bewildered gaze on the suit of armor crouching beside her.

"You…uh…what?"

"My name," he repeated, somehow breathless despite his lack of physical respiratory system, "is Alphonse Elric. I'm 14 years old. My older brother, Edward, he's 15. He's the one who caught you earlier. And he's a state alchemist."

The girl offered only a slow blink in reaction.

"The…the Fullmetal Alchemist, if you've heard of him," Alphonse continued meekly, suddenly embarrassed. Most people had, but the blank look in the girl's eyes yielded no recognition. "Look, we're just kids. My brother might be enlisted with the military, but he's not like any of the soldiers you might be afraid of. Neither of us are. We're on our own quest, and we try to help people as much as we can." Al levelled a firm but kind gaze on the girl. "We want to help you, too. It's why we stayed in this town after we found out about you. You're…a kid, just like us. You're scared, and hurt. We've been there. We're there way too often for our age. So…I understand. I really do."

The girl let out a soft huff, watery eyes flicking between Al's faceplate and his hands. "A kid…?" she repeated in a whisper.

"We won't hurt you. We won't take you anywhere you don't want to go. And…we won't let anything happen to you. That's a promise. I _promise_."

She laughed derisively, turning away to blink back tears. But Al remained steadfast, his grasp on her hand steady but yielding if she wished to push him away.

She did not.

After a long contemplative silence, the girl began nodding slowly, as if confirming something to herself. "…promise, huh? You promise I can trust you?"

Her words were so gentle that Al might have missed them had he been any further away. Without a word, he released her hand and instead offered a pinky out to her.

The girl's eyes trailed back down to him, taking in the gesture.

"I promise, on everything I have. My brother and I don't hurt innocent people. And we look out for our friends, no matter what."

A long moment of stillness hung over the room then. Alphonse remained motionless, his finger extended patiently. And after what felt an eternity, the girl strained against her bonds to close the short distance between them. Her pinky, shaky as it was, hooked around Al's and bounced once in confirmation. The corner of her lip twitched upwards, almost despite herself, and Alphonse similarly melted in relief.

"Okay. Alphonse," she said his name slowly, as if testing it on her tongue. "Um, my name is Sache."

_Sache_. It felt nice to have a name to put to the face, Al thought distantly as he watched her twist to wipe her tears onto the shoulder of her hospital gown.

"If you don't mind me asking, what branch of the military are you in? I've never seen any soldiers in armor quite that…obtrusive."

If Al hadn't already been crouched on the floor, Sache's words alone would have dragged him down as far. "I didn't ask to be this big, you know…" he whined in a rare show of his age.

Sache laughed softly, sniffling the last of her tears away. "Why don't you just take it off, then?"

Alphonse pushed himself to his feet as if physically dodging the question. "I'm not actually enlisted. My brother is the state alchemist, like I mentioned before. You can trust him too, I promise. He's kind, just…somewhat abrasive."

A frown tugged at Sache's lips. "Alchemist? What, like a…isn't that the old-timey word for a pharmacist?"

"H-huh? No, he's…you don't know what a state alchemist-"

Alphonse's confusion was interrupted briefly as the door behind him opened. Edward entered the room briskly, the attending physician close on his heels. Both faltered slightly at the sight of Sache alert and upright in her bed.

"I thought I heard voices in here!" The doctor made his way swiftly to Sache's bedside, and if he noticed the way she recoiled at his proximity he elected to ignore it. "I'm glad to see you awake and talking, miss. Do you feel alright?"

Sache's gaze shifted pointedly to the ends of her legs.

The doctor cleared his throat. "I er…let me rephrase that. Are you currently in any pain?"

Sache gave a brusque shake of her head in reply.

While the doctor continued his examination, Ed turned a questioning gaze up to his brother. "How long ago did she wake up, Al? Why didn’t you come get us?"

Alphonse crouched slightly to reply in a whisper, "It's only been a few minutes. And she was really scared, so…"

"Oh!" The brothers paused their conversation and turned towards the sound of Sache's meek voice. Her curious gaze swept over Ed's form. "This is…Edward? Your brother, right?" She briefly looked to Al for confirmation. "…your…older brother? Funny, I sort of thought he'd be t-"

Alphonse jerked instinctively. "Oh please don't-"

"No, no Al!" Edward grit out, his cheshire grin murderous. "Let's hear what she has to say! You thought I'd be…?"

Sache's expression became alive with panic, and she once again glanced toward Al. The shake of his head in response was measured, but sufficiently urgent to convey a silent warning.

"...th…thought he'd be…i-in matching armor!" The girl bit out with a shaky laugh.

Ed's jaw ticked subtly. "Nice save."

The doctor broke through the tension in the room almost physically. He brushed past the brothers and unclasped the straps binding Sache's arms to the bedframe. "Well miss, if you're up to it, I was hoping I would be able to gather some information from you."

Al immediately noticed the color draining from Sache's face. "What kind of information?" he asked quickly.

The doctor frowned and cast a look back towards Al. "Just the basics, really. Enough to file a report. Name, demographics, hopefully some medical history and an explanation for the current injuries." He looked back to Sache, smiling pleasantly. "If there's anything you feel uncomfortable answering, you don't have to."

For a brief moment, Al found Sache meeting his gaze once again. Seeing the uncertainty in her eyes he breathed, "I promised, right?"

Sache took a deep breath, settling back against her stiff hospital-grade pillows and giving her wrists an experimental stretch. "…mm. Okay."

"Excellent!" The doctor perched on the edge of her bed, quickly scrawling something onto the clipboard in his hand. "We'll start off simple. Name?"

"Sache Kiura," she answered easily.

Al exchanged a puzzled glance with his brother. He hadn't expected such a foreign name from a girl who looked so decidedly Amestrian—all soft golden hair and clear blue eyes. She spoke easily with no accent as well, so the possibility of her being an outsider seemed even stranger to consider.

Still, the doctor continued on. "Age and birthdate?"

At this, Sache offered Alphonse a sheepish grin. "I uh, just turned twenty, actually."

If the armor Alphonse inhabited had a joint for the mouthpiece, it would certainly have fallen open in shock. "Wh…twenty? B-but you look so young, I thought you were…like us!"

Sache laughed lightly, steepling her fingers together. "I know. I get that a lot, sorry. I just have a baby face and stubby little legs." The joking tone faltered from her voice as she once again glanced down towards where her foot had once been. "Um, pun unintended."

"Wait, wait, wait a minute." Edward lurched forward, startling Sache a bit. "You're twenty years old?" His golden eyes swept over her blanketed form, calculating. "…how tall are you?"

"Brother-"

Ed held up a gloved hand to silence his brother's exasperated plea and kept a measured gaze on Sache's face. The girl squirmed slightly under the intensity of it. "U-uh, well…last time I measured I was about 153 centimeters?"

A brief silence settled over the room. Ed relaxed and stepped away from the bed. He turned toward his brother, gently resting his forehead against the cool metal armor…as tears began to stream down his face.

"Al, I can see it," Edward cooed. "A shining light of hope, just on the horizon."

"For goodness' sake, Ed…"

Over the alchemist's shoulder, Sache let out a warm laugh. Her tension melted away as she continued, "Anyway…my birthday is December 6, 2050."

The three men snapped their attention back towards Sache in an instant. She swallowed hard and looked between them, hesitant. "…o-oh! Do you operate on the Qhagerian calendar? S-sorry, I'm still not entirely sure where I am." She paused, briefly calculating something on her fingers. "Uh, I think the year for that would be…I don't know, they have weird names for eras and I never learned how to read it. Sorry."

Ed and Al exchanged a bewildered glance with the doctor, all three remaining silent as Sache's anxiety heightened.

"L-look," she ventured, "if you just tell me which country I'm actually in and what system you use, that should clear up the confusion."

It was Edward who broke the silence this time, taking a slow step toward the girl. "So…you really are a foreigner?" He frowned, examining Sache closer now. "This is Amestris. And it's 1914 according to our calendar."

Sache let the weight of his words sink in. Her brows furrowed in confusion and she looked away. "That's…odd. How could I end up so far off-target?" She spoke mostly to herself, raising one thumb to her lips to nibble at the nail idly. "Uh, well…I've never heard of this country before, so I'm not sure what to say."

"What?" Al couldn't hold back the incomprehension in his voice. "But Amestris is…I mean, this country is an alchemic and militaristic superpower. And with all the skirmishes we get involved in at the borders, I would think anyone from anywhere nearby would know it instantly."

"Okay," Edward ventured, eyes narrowing slightly, "where _are_ you from, then?"

Sache sat up straighter, though whether her posture stemmed from confidence or concern Alphonse couldn't tell. "I was born in Aossin. Rural, way down south."

The hesitation that met her words was not comforting.

"Afraid we don't know of that name, either," Ed murmured.

Now it was Sache's turn to appear shaken. "Wh-…what? How can you not? Aossin is a first-world country." The girl shook her head in exasperation. "M-maybe, um…do you have a map?"

The doctor spoke up then, all eyes in the room quickly turning to him, "We have a small reference map in the clinic, but I'm afraid it only goes as far as Drachma and Xing. I'll go grab it." He stood and briskly left the room.

Sache slowly sank back into the bed, her mind racing. "Drachma? Xing? Those…I-I don't know those either." The girl hugged herself as she developed a frantic look once more. "This isn't right. I aimed for Aossin; how could I have missed this badly?"

Before either brother had a chance to question her words, the doctor returned and carefully handed Sache a small folded-up parchment. She opened it with shaking hands and desperately scanned over the map printed inside. A brief moment passed before she recoiled in disbelief.

"No…no, I don't recognize any of this." Sache turned a distressed gaze to Ed and Al. "Don't you have a world map? Or a globe? Anything more than this?"

Alphonse hesitated thoughtfully, chancing a look toward his brother. Ed appeared similarly lost in thought as he replied, "As far as I know, there doesn't…exist a full map. At least not an Amestrian one. People don't usually travel that far and come back, and the few that do have only reported as far as the nations we've had contact with."

Sache shoved the map back into the doctor's hands as if disgusted by it. "Well I've seen a world map, and I know for a fact that none of this is on it! Xing, Drachma, Amestris…none of this is right! Where am I?" She paused momentarily, and Alphonse was alarmed to notice tears starting a new descent down her cheeks. "And if I'm here…wherever 'here' is…how am I ever going to…oh…" A small keening moan was the only warning Sache gave before hugging her knees tightly to her chest and breaking down into sobs once again.

"You know," the doctor began quietly, pulling Ed and Al away from Sache's bedside and taking in their uncomfortable expressions, "I don't mean to impose, but perhaps you boys should take Ms. Kiura along with you back to one of your commanding officers. I know nothing of military policy, but she has nowhere else to go and we can't hold her here forever."

Ed seemed to balk at the idea and drew in a breath to protest.

"Brother, there's something very strange going on with her—we already know that. Besides, if it's information about the outside world we need, I'm sure the government has to have more than anyone else. Right?"

Ed groaned, reaching up to scratch at his head begrudgingly. "I don't have a problem with her, but that means we'd have to report straight back to that bastard Mustang. And I was hoping to put that off a while longer…"

A particularly sharp cry from the girl in question stiffened Edward's spine, and he let out a long, frustrated breath. "Fine. We'll escort her to one of the headquarters. Maybe we can skip Mustang altogether and just head straight for Central."

Al brightened immediately. He turned and carefully approached the weeping girl, placing a wary hand on her shoulder. "Miss Sache, it's going to be alright. You can come with us, and maybe we can find more answers. You don't have to be scared…"

If Al possessed a still-beating heart, it would have lurched suddenly in his chest when Sache tilted her head to give his hand an affectionate nudge. It took a moment for the girl to find her voice and murmur, "Thanks Alphonse. But I'm not…scared. Not really. I just…" She slowly tilted her head up to cast a despairing look at her new friend.

"…if I have no idea where I am, how am I ever going to find my Zaqi?"

* * *

Beneath the unforgiving desert sun, three figures trudged slowly across the rolling sands. The smallest of the group lagged a few paces behind—he struggled to pull his scarf high enough to protect his face from the grains of sand whipping coarsely against his skin. The boy called out to alert his two companions, who turned back to watch him patiently.

The boy, finally satisfied with his covering, ran to catch up—

—and just as quickly found himself faceplanting into the hot sand.

"Oh! Addai, careful!" One of the taller figures made her way back toward the fallen child, extending a hand to pull him to his feet. "When the winds are blowing like this, you must watch your step."

The child, Addai, huffed rather indignantly as he dusted the grains from his pants. "It wasn't the sands _mama_ , I felt something hard."

The third figure joined them, casting an inquisitive glance toward the ground upon hearing his child's words. He gave the newly forming dune a tentative brush with his foot.

All three travelers recoiled in shock upon finding a human leg buried just below.

The woman quickly hugged Addai to her hip, shouting a sharp curse in her native tongue. The man dropped to his knees and began to dig at the shifting sands more firmly.

Within moments, the family found themselves looking down at the freshly uncovered body of a man. He seemed to be one of their own: deep brown skin and a head topped by a shag of white-blonde hair. He appeared unscathed, and at least partially clinging to life. Addai's mother released the boy from her grasp in surprise, and his father began a rhythmic pumping of his hands on the unconscious man's chest.

"He's…fine. He'll be…fine," Addai's father huffed between compressions, "just a bit of…sand in his lungs, surely…"

Addai fell to his knees beside his father, looking over the man on the ground curiously. His complexion was familiar, but his clothes were decidedly foreign. He was not at all dressed for the desert sands, especially with his arms exposed to the sun so-

Addai hesitated, noticing something then. The strange man didn't have any obvious wounds. But upon closer inspection, there were faint gashes on his forearm—seemingly random slices that trickled crimson blood where they were not clogged by now-red sand. But despite the dirt and grime, Addai began to interpret the seemingly random cuts as letters. And squinting under the white-hot desert sun, he was able to make out a hastily-scrawled message:

_Find Sa_


End file.
